Taekwondo: The in-fighting, crisis that plagued Nigeria’s untapped goldmine after 48 years

Introduced to the nation nearly five decades ago, Taekwondo has seen moments of triumphs and is one of only six sports that have won Nigeria an Olympic medal, yet it remains an untapped reservoir, constrained by challenges both internally and externally, reports PETER AKINBO

Taekwondo. The name is made up of three Korean/Chinese words: Tae meaning foot, Kwon meaning hand, Do meaning way.

The sport is ranked as the highest martial arts in the world today but in Nigeria, despite its overwhelming prospects, aside being used for self defence, Taekwondo is still struggling to find its feet.

For a sport that promised so much and grew very fast in the nation, producing an Olympic medallist as early as the second time the sport was showcased at the global Games as a demonstration sport — close followers of the martial art, stakeholders and athletes alike say Taekwondo has not met the standards it set for itself, with only one other Olympic medal ever since.

Although, it has the potential to provide medal winners, various setbacks, chief among them finance, have prevented a growth of the martial art in Nigeria.

Taekwondo’s entrance into Nigeria in 1975 marked the dawn of a martial arts revolution, spearheaded by Aikpa Aime from neighbouring Ivory Coast. In 1985, it debuted at the National Sports Festival in Kwara State as a demonstration sport, paving its way to national recognition.

The formation of the Nigeria Taekwondo Black Belt College in 1986, under the guidance of experts like Grandmaster Moo Cheon Kim, bolstered the sport’s educational prospects.

By 1987, the Taekwondo Association of Nigeria (now the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation) founded by George Ashiru joined the World Taekwondo Federation.

The sport’s rapid growth in the country translated to continental success in 1987 as Ashiru won a silver medal at the 4th African Games in Kenya.

In 1988, Taekwondo debuted as a demonstration sport at the Seoul Olympic Games and in 1992, Nigeria clinched a silver medal in the Barcelona Summer Olympics, courtesy of Emmanuel Peters, even though the sport was not yet a medal-scoring event at the time.

Peters’ romance with the martial art was fanned by his desire for self-defence against some of his bigger peers, but he became the sport’s trailblazer. From being a national champion in 1987 to becoming the continental champion, Peters also defied all odds to defeat the then world champion, Egypt’s Amr Khairy, to claim gold medal at the 1991 African Games in Egypt.

For watchers of the event, Taekwondo had come to Nigeria following the heroics of Ashiru and Peters. However, following a lull, Chika Chukwumerije also sprang to global acclaim.

Chukwumerije competed at three African Games winning bronze in 2003, gold in 2007 and silver in 2011. He also competed at the Olympics in 2004, 2008 and 2012, winning his only medal — bronze — at the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics.

That was how far the country got in terms of global success before the sport witnessed a reversal of fortunes following several issues.

At the 2014 Belgian Open, Chukwumerije’s brother, Uche, won a gold medal for Nigeria. Since then, the Nigeria Taekwondo Federation has only claimed two medals — bronze medal in the male 68Kg category through Chinazom Nwosu at the 2018 African Taekwondo Championships in Agadir, Morocco and most recently silver at the 2022 edition of the competition.

Among all 38 nations who have competed in the Taekwondo event at the Olympics, Nigeria are fifth in Africa and joint-last in the world. Nigeria — alongside Kazakhstan, Japan, Israel and Colombia — have only won one bronze medal at the global sports showpiece.

Taekwondo was introduced to Ivory Coast in the 1960s, but they joined the World Taekwondo in 1975, 12 years before Nigeria, and they are the most successful African country at the Olympics and 19th in the world with one gold medal and two bronze. Second in Africa and 26th in the world, Tunisia joined WT in 1978 and have claimed one silver medal and a bronze at the Olympics.

Both joint-third in Africa and 30th in the world, Gabon and Nigeria both have one silver medal at the Games and joined WT in 1978 and 1999 respectively. Egypt, who joined WT in 1979, are fourth in Africa and 34th in the world after winning four bronze medals at the Olympics.

Leadership tussle

Amid the steady growth of the sport, internal strife within the Taekwondo family, wranglings, divisions and power struggles among key stakeholders, administrators and athletes alike conspired to impede the growth of the sport.

Some influential board members repeatedly tried to wrestle power from Ashiru and this power tussle came to a head in 2015 when Ashiru, the NTF president at the time, was impeached for alleged financial impropriety and abuse of office.

However, he was reinstated by the court, which ruled that his impeachment was illegal. In 2017, Ashiru was again forced out of office by the board members of the federation, who again accused him of financial mismanagement and abuse of office. He was replaced by Margaret Binga, who emerged in controversial circumstances.

On August 23, 2017, Binga was controversially inaugurated as the new NTF president by then sports minister, Solomon Dalung, after the incumbent Ashiru, who was vying for a second term in office, got to the venue of the polls on June 13 to discover that his name had disappeared from the list without reasons given.

Ashiru, alongside 176 other candidates — out of the 396 that applied to contest ¬— on the various federations’ boards, were disqualified just few minutes to the commencement of the elections.

The Grandmaster, who came into the board via the ex-officio slot, protested the decision and the Abdulrazak Salau-led Appeals Committee nullified the polls and ordered a re-run, after it was discovered that Ashiru’s name was on the sports ministry’s original list of contestants.

“I have contested in more than five elections in Nigeria and this will be the first time that such discrepancies will occur. They were glaring mistakes. But with the decision of the Appeals Committee to conduct fresh elections, I have been vindicated and I believe that the true people’s choice will emerge,” a delighted Ashiru told The PUNCH in Abuja eight years ago, after the Appeals Committee decision, which was also upheld by the Harmonisation Committee headed by Dalung.

But that ruling opened a new chapter of controversy, crisis and upheaval in the taekwondo family, after the NTF board members, who were directed to report to Abuja for a re-run election on July 20, were stunned as a 14-man board with Binga as president, was sworn in on August 23, despite the re-run not conducted.

International referee Ferguson Oluigbo described Dalung’s inauguration, where only five members of the federation were allegedly present, as “a kind of coup.”

“The minister took some people to his office and planned a kind of coup. Out of 14 board members, only five were there. They had only one zonal representative out of six. The vice president wasn’t there and you went ahead to inaugurate the president and some candidates? And did they expect us to line up behind them? No. Every right thinking person knows that this undemocratic. This is a martial sport and we won’t allow that.”

However, Binga had insisted that the most important thing was that the board was inaugurated despite several members shunning the exercise.

“Does it matter whether all the board members were present at the inauguration or not? There was an inauguration that took place on August 23. I don’t know why they are trying to make issues out of this. I know that I went for the election (on June 13) and I was declared winner unopposed because I was the only person standing; he (Ashiru) had an issue,” the former taekwondo athlete told The PUNCH in 2017.

During the next election in 2021, it was evident that Binga was an unpopular choice after she failed to get a single vote at the polls as Abdullahi Saidu-Baba emerged as the new NTF president with a landslide win.

Last week, our correspondent reached out to Ashiru for his side of the story, but the former Taekwondo boss said the power play was not a major issue.

“For me, I don’t think these issues had a big effect on the Taekwondo family,” he told The PUNCH.

However, the controversial election and the rift was evident following its adverse effect on the Taekwondo community, as the 15th PANAMAI West Africa Open Taekwondo Championships scheduled for the National Stadium, Lagos, from August 24 to 26, 2017 was postponed indefinitely because of the rift.

Afterwards, Several aggrieved stakeholders also boycotted the 2017 National Youth Games and Nigeria was placed on a temporary suspension by the World Taekwondo Federation with key information about the country’s officers and secretariats left blank by the world body.

Financial crisis

Cash-strapped NTF has continuously found it difficult funding athletes to major international events, which has deprived the athletes of rankings on the global scene.

Travelling abroad for competitions has almost become a thing of the past for Taekwondo athletes following the economic hardship, which has translated to a drop on the country’s medal chances and rankings at the international level.